Nadal into Rio semifinals without hitting a shot

Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas defeated Spain’s Rafael Nadal, the top seed, 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 in the semifinals of the Rio Open.

Nadal, who is still searching for his first title this season, punched his ticket to the quarterfinal round following a tough straight set win over Nicolas Almagro 6-2, 7-5. In the pair’s first ever meeting, Nadal fought past Cuevas in a lengthy, controversial three set match that went past 3 AM in Rio.

Nadal, who also suffered a semi-final defeat to Austria’s Dominic Thiem in last week’s Argentina Open, admitted that he had to keep working to try to change the dynamics.

France’s Benoit Paire on Friday ousted top seed Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 to join second seed Tomas Berdych, Marin Cilic and Nick Kyrgios in the semi-finals of the Open 13.

“I lost an opportunity”, Nadal said. When the players returned Cuevas quickly ran off 13 of 17 points to grab the first set.

In Rio on Saturday night, Thiem will play Guido Pella from Argentina for a place in Sunday’s final.

But Almagro was far less effective, losing his final three service games and winning only 59 percent of his first-serve points for the match, compared to 70 percent for Nadal. “I had my chances in both but I just have to look forward”.

“I felt calm at the start”.

Ferrer’s title defence came to an end as the Belgian fifth seed triumphed 6-3 6-2 in an hour, 13 minutes on the clay courts.

“Of course it was odd in the beginning, but he had the same conditions and just handled it better than me”, Thiem said.

The 14-time major victor, who won the title in the Olympic host city in 2014, is joined in the next round by compatriot David Ferrer.

“I’m surprising myself with the good tennis I’ve been playing”, del Potro admitted.